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Lobster population falls off New England,
leading regulators to declare overfishing
[October 31, 2025]
By PATRICK WHITTLE
PORTLAND,
Maine (AP) — A new report says America’s lobsters, which have been in
decline since 2018, are now being overfished off New England.
The stock has declined by 34% since that year in its most important
fishing grounds, the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries
Commission said Thursday. The commission said it now considers
overfishing of the species to be occurring, and that could bring new
management measures that restrict fishermen from catching them in the
future.
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A lobster guards its territory in front of a trap on Sept. 3, 2018, near
Biddeford, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File) |
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Lobsters are among America's most lucrative seafood species, and
they were worth more than $700 million at the docks last year.
The industry caught record high numbers of the crustaceans in
the 2010s.
But the lobster population has shown “rapid declines in
abundance in recent years,” the commission said in a statement.
The assessment said the decline and overfishing were taking
place in fishing areas off Maine and Massachusetts where most
lobster fishing takes place. The assessment also considered the
southern New England lobster stock, which it said has been
depleted for years and remains so.
Regulators have attempted to enforce new rules on lobster
fishermen to try to stem the decline in recent years, but they
have been met with resistance. They had planned to increase the
minimal harvest size for lobsters in key fishing grounds this
summer. That would have required fishermen to throw back
lobsters that previously could have been sold.
The commission backed off the rules earlier this year after
months of protest from lobster fishermen who found the new rules
unnecessary and threatening to their livelihoods. Fishermen in
the industry are also contending with challenges from potential
new rules to protect rare whales, warming oceans and volatile
trade markets.
“Even as the resource adjusts from record highs, lobstermen
remain deeply committed to stewardship, sustainable practices,
and to protecting the fishery that sustains thousands of Maine
families,” said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the
Maine Lobstermen's Association.
The American lobster fishery is based mostly in Maine. Carl
Wilson, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine
Resources, said the state “will continue to engage industry in
discussions about the stock assessment and the future of the
fishery” and he is “confident in the commitment of this industry
to conservation of this resource.”
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